Four teams, FC Barcelona, AC Milan, APOEL and Benfica, have in the previous week earned a place in the Quarter-Finals of the UEFA Champions League. Today those teams will be joined by two more.
The first game is between Bayern Munich and FC Barcelona Basel. The first leg between the two sides produced some magnificent football and despite an astonishing amount of scoring chances only one goal was scored, surprisingly by Basel. Therefore, Bayern, an early season favourite to reach at least the Semi-Finals, desperately need to win against the Swiss side. However, a 1-0 win by the Germans would only take the game to extra time so they need to win by a margin of at least two goals to advance. If Basel approach the game the same way they did in Switzerland I see no reason why they couldn't at least hold out for a draw and knock the German giants out of the competition.
The second tie is between Italian side FC Internazionale and French league runners-up Olympique Marseille. Marseille are in the exact same position as Basel as they also won the first leg by the score of 1-0 with a dramatic late winner. Inter are in the midst of a terrible season in Serie A and they will be looking to salvage their season in the Champions League.
Both games start at the same time, at 20:45 CET.
Lineups after the jump. Enjoy.
Game 1:
FC Bayern Munich (4-2-3-1): Manuel Neuer; Philipp Lahm, Jérôme Boateng, Holger Badstuber, David Alaba; Luiz Gustavo, Toni Kroos; Arjen Robben, Thomas Müller, Franck Ribéry; Mario Gómez
FC Basel (4-3-3): Yann Sommer; Park Joo-Ho, Aleksandar Dragović, David Abraham, Markus Steinhöfer; Fabian Frei, Cabral, Xherdan Shaqiri, Granit Xhaka; Marco Streller, Alexander Frei
Game 2:
F.C. Internazionale Milano (4-4-2): Júlio César; Maicon, Lúcio, Walter Samuel, Yuto Nagatomo; Dejan Stanković, Andrea Poli, Javier Zanetti; Wesley Sneijder, Diego Forlán, Diego Milito
Olympique de Marseille (4-4-2): Steve Mandanda; César Azpilicueta, Souleymane Diawara, Nicolas N'Koulou, Jérémy Morel; Alou Diarra, Stéphane Mbia, Morgan Amalfitano, Mathieu Valbuena; Loïc Rémy, André Ayew